Slap Down!

Taibbi has done a bang-up, if brutal, job on his new search for America's worst campaign journalist in the New York Press.

for example:

BILL HOFFMANN & HEATHER GILMORE
NEW YORK POST
Def.
PIA CATTON
NEW YORK SUN

THE POST AND the Sun both did well to make sure the public was served by a crusading free press investigation of John Kerry's mysteriously lustrous, apparently painted-on, pre-debate tan. But only the Sun's Catton did the job correctly, quoting a former stripper as a tanning authority in her story.

or:

ELISABETH BUMILLER
NEW YORK TIMES
Def.
DEBORAH ORIN
NEW YORK POST

IT'S ALWAYS A LITTLE surprising to remember that the New York Post has a "Washington Bureau Chief" filing ostensibly factual stories from the Hill about the movements of the president and other real, breathing government officials. The effect of reading these touchingly earnest impersonations of credible journalism is a little like watching Koko the gorilla play with a kitten, or punch the "buttons" on a toy telephone. My god, you think. It's so human!